Born in Shame by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online Page B

office seemed to matter. Nothing about it mattered in the least.
    Not her drafting table, her tools. Not the major account she’d snagged on the very day she’d received the call from Columbus, and had been forced to turn over to an associate. It simply didn’t matter. The promotion she’d broken her back to secure seemed so removed from her just then. Just as the life she’d led, with all its tidiness and careful planning, seemed to have belonged to someone else all along.
    She found herself staring at the painting of her father sleeping in the garden. It was still propped against the wall rather than hung. For reasons she couldn’t understand, she simply didn’t want it in her office after all.
    â€œShannon?” The woman who poked her head in the door was attractive, dressed impeccably. Lily was her assistant, a casual friend among what Shannon was beginning to realize was a lifetime of casual friends. “I thought you might want a break.”
    â€œI haven’t been doing anything I need a break from.”
    â€œHey.” Lily stepped in, crossing over to her desk to give Shannon’s shoulders a brisk rub. “Give yourself a little time. You’ve only been back a few days.”
    â€œI shouldn’t have bothered.” In an irritable move she pushed back from the desk. “I’m not producing anything.”
    â€œYou’re going through a rough patch.”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWhy don’t I cancel your afternoon meetings?”
    â€œI have to get back to work sometime.” She stared out the window, at the view of New York she’d dreamed would one day be hers. “But cancel the lunch with Tod. I’m not in the mood to be social.”
    Lily pursed her lips and made a note of it. “Trouble in paradise?”
    â€œLet’s just say I’m thinking that relationship isn’t productive, either—and there’s too much backlog for lunch dates.”
    â€œYour call.”
    â€œYes, it is.” Shannon turned back. “I haven’t really thanked you for handling so much of my work while I was gone. I’ve looked some things over and wanted to tell you that you did a terrific job.”
    â€œThat’s what they pay me for.” Lily flipped a page in her book. “The Mincko job needs some finishing touches, and nothing’s satisfied the suits at Rightway. Tilghmanton thinks you can. He sent down a memo this morning asking you to look over the drafts and come up with something new—by the end of the week.”
    â€œGood.” She nodded and pushed up to her desk again. “A challenge like that might be just what I need. Let’s see Rightway first, Lily. You can fill me in on Mincko later.”
    â€œYou got it.” Lily headed for the door. “Oh, I should tell you. Rightway wants something traditional, but different, subtle, but bold, sexy but restrained.”
    â€œOf course they do. I’ll get my magic wand out of my briefcase.”
    â€œGood to have you back, Shannon.”
    When the door closed, Shannon let out a deep breath. It was good to be back, wasn’t it.
    It had to be.
    Â 
    Rain was pelting the streets. After a miserable ten-hour day that had concluded in a showdown with a man she’d tried to convince herself she’d been in love with, Shannon watched it from the cab window on the way back to her apartment.
    Maybe she’d been right to go back to work so quickly. The routine, the demands and concentration had helped shake some of the grief. At least temporarily. She needed routine, she reminded herself. She needed the outrageous schedule that had earned her her position at Ry-Tilghmanton.
    Her job, the career she’d carved out, was all she had now. There wasn’t even the illusion of a satisfying relationship to fill a corner of her life.
    But she’d been right to break things off with Tod. They’d been no more than attractive props